After pausing in this novel for a looooooong time I finally spent some evenings and finished her up! It is a very visually pleasurable read with great imagery that you can imagine as you read. You fall in and out of love with the characters as the story weaves on.

A nice light read (one that shouldn't take months) :) and great for book club! I found some fun Italian treats to taste on for this time around. Enjoy!

Amazon: Hailed by critics and loved by readers of literary and historical fiction, Beautiful Ruins is the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962...and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later.

Thread the bottom half of a tomato, 1 bocconcini, 1 basil leaf and the top half of the tomato onto a small skewer. Place on a Himalayan salt plate. Repeat with the remaining tomatoes, bocconcini and basil. Lightly drizzle the skewers with olive oil and season with pepper.

Transfer the salt plate to the refrigerator for 3 hours, turning the skewers over after about 1 1/2 hours if possible.

​Cook garlic and red pepper flakes in oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until garlic is golden, about 1 minute. Add broccoli and salt and cook, breaking up frozen chunks and stirring occasionally, until broccoli is thawed and crisp-tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in chickpeas and cook until heated through.

Cook pasta in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta cooking water, then drain pasta in a colander. Add pasta and reserved cooking water to broccoli and chickpeas in skillet and cook over moderate heat, tossing, until combined well. Serve drizzled with additional olive oil.

A light easy summer read. I enjoyed her stories (although some felt like tangents) but her take on weddings was fun and I felt like the message at the end was a least worth the read. If you're looking for something easy, brainless and entertaining add this to your summer reading list. When thinking about foods for this book club I thought while it might be obvious let's go for wedding food. :) Hope it's enjoyable and maybe reminds you of your own festive day! Next Month's Book Club: Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.

Amazon: Weddings. They’re fun, festive, and joyful, and at a time when people marry later in life—and sometimes not at all—they offer endless opportunities to reexamine love and what we want for ourselves, regardless of whether or not our aim is a walk down the aisle. In Save the Date, Jen Doll charts the course of her own perennial wedding guesthood, from the ceremony of distant family members when she was eight to the recent nuptials of a new boyfriend’s friends.

There’s the first trip home for a childhood pal’s big day, in which she learns that her first love has eloped to Hawaii. There’s the destination wedding attended with little baggage beyond a suitcase of strappy sandals and summery party dresses. Regrettably, there is a series of celebrations that mean the end to a valued friendship. There’s also the wedding that offers all the promise of new love.

Wedding experiences come in as varied an assortment as the gowns at any bridal shop, and Doll turns a keen eye to each, delivering a heartfelt exploration of contemporary relationships. Funny, honest, and affecting, Save the Date is a fresh and spirited look at the many ways in which we connect to one another.

Thread the bottom half of a tomato, 1 bocconcini, 1 basil leaf and the top half of the tomato onto a small skewer. Place on a Himalayan salt plate. Repeat with the remaining tomatoes, bocconcini and basil. Lightly drizzle the skewers with olive oil and season with pepper.

Transfer the salt plate to the refrigerator for 3 hours, turning the skewers over after about 1 1/2 hours if possible.

Simmer the peas in a skillet with the cream, red-pepper flakes, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon salt until tender, about 5 minutes. Add spinach and cook over medium-low heat, about a minute, until wilted. Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest and juice.*

Meanwhile, cook gnocchi in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta-cooking water, then drain gnocchi.

Add gnocchi to sauce with cheese and some of reserved cooking water and stir to coat. I used about 1/4 cup of the cooking water, but feel free to add more to thin out the sauce if necessary.

Such a fun read! Don Tillman is the literary version of TV's Sheldon Cooper. And I love them both. An unpredictable love story that warms your heart by the end. Don is a geneticist and Rosie as a PHD candidate and their unlikely meeting, story and relationship is worth picking up this book for. Ironically after finishing the book and starting this post I discovered there is a sequel that I'll be adding to my to-read list to check out at once. I'm changing up the book club posting a bit on here- going with once a month and announcing the next book at that time. Trying to get these done once a week has been pushing it for me!! Next month's book: Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest that I'll post mid-June. In the meantime, check out this month's menu and hope that you enjoy it!

Amazon: The art of love is never a science: Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially inept professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.

Rosie Jarman possesses all these qualities. Don easily disqualifies her as a candidate for The Wife Project (even if she is “quite intelligent for a barmaid”). But Don is intrigued by Rosie’s own quest to identify her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on The Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie―and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you.

Using a small round cutter, cut pie crust or puff pastry and place into indentations of muffin tin and place in the oven to pre-bake for about 15 minutes.

Whisk together eggs and heavy cream until light and fluffy. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper until well-combined. Stir in cheese. Pour into pie shells and top with add-in options as desired. Bake for for 15-25 minutes until the egg mixture is set. Remove from the oven and let rest about 5 minutes before serving.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Season salmon with salt and pepper. Place in a 9-inch baking dish. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil and sprinkle with half of scallions. Bake until salmon is partially opaque in center, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a dish and let cool.

Break salmon into large pieces and divide among serving dishes. Top each with grapefruit, avocado, greens, and remaining scallions. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk remaining 2 tablespoons oil with lime juice and season with salt. Drizzle dressing over each salad.

What a delightful read! A collection of letters from Guernsey Island to London and back again. You fall in love with the various characters and their stories during the occupation. The main character Juliet was my favorite followed closely by her closeted BFF Sidney. Their interactions made the book for me. I also enjoyed the somewhat hidden love story that wasn't at the forefront of the novel but made for a very nice ending. As this was a book club about a book club it was fun to choose food for our menu. Of course we had to feature "roast pig" and "potato peel pie" in some form but there were also a few attempts at desserts that tried and failed. Hopefully that won't happen to me or you! Enjoy!

Amazon: January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

Bring a roomy saucepan of water to the boil. Meanwhile scrub then peel the potatoes, reserving the peel.

Remove the onions. Cut the streaky bacon into matchstick size pieces. Gently fry in the now empty frying pan.

Thinly slice the potatoes and piece by piece drop them into the boiling water. Boil for 10 minutes then drain in a colander.

Refill the saucepan and bring to the boil. Take one leaf at a time from the cabbage. Cut out the main fibre. Stack the leaves and then finely shred. Blanch the shredded leaves in boiling water. Drain.

Butter the ovenproof dish with remaining butter. Lay half the potato slices over the bottom. Season with salt and pepper. Scatter the cabbage over the top, season. Scatter the bacon over the cabbage, season with pepper. Lay the remaining potatoes on top. Season then pour the cream over the whole dish.

Cook in a hot over 350 degrees F/180 degrees C, Gas 4 for for about 45 mins. until bubbling and golden.

While the pie cooks, blanch the peel in boiling water for 1 minute. Drain and dry on kitchen paper.

Heat the oil. Drop the peel in piece by piece making sure there is space between each piece. It takes about 2 mins. Drain on kitchen paper.

Remove the pie from the oven, scatter the peel over the top and serve.

What a great book! It was a bit longer than the other books I've read recently but the story was wonderful. You ever get the feeling of mourning characters after you finish a book?? Kind of like they died when the story ended (note this isn't what happens in the book). That's how I felt. I was so sad to be finished with Marie-Laure's story. I am a big fan of historical fiction so this book was right up my alley. It told two stories that eventually resulted in one; from one side (French girl) and the other side (German boy). Read it. Seriously. Make your book club put it on the list. Choosing a menu was a little difficult because really everyone was starving during WWII. But I did do a little digging and I think I can up with something pretty tasty. Hope you all enjoy this book and the food!

Amazon: Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

Coat a 10-inch nonstick skillet with flared side with cooking spray. Heat skillet over medium heat.

In a large bowl combine eggs, chives, salt, and cayenne pepper. Use rotary beater or wire whisk to beat until frothy. Pour into prepared skillet. Immediately begin stirring the eggs gently but continuously with a wooden or plastic spatula until mixture resembles small pieces of cooked egg surrounded by liquid egg. Stop stirring. Cook for 30 to 60 seconds more or until egg is set but still shiny.

When egg is set but still shiny, sprinkle with cheese. Top with 1 cup of the spinach and 1/4 cup of the Red Pepper Relish. With a spatula, lift and fold omelet partially over filling. Arrange remaining spinach on warm platter. Transfer omelet to platter.

Bring a medium pot of water to a rolling boil. Lower peaches into the water and boil for 40 seconds. Remove them gently with a slotted spoon and transfer them to a baking sheet. Once they have cooled enough to handle, gently slip the skins off. Cut the peaches in half and remove the pits.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together water, sugar and cardamom pods. Simmer over medium heat, whisking until sugar dissolves.

Carefully lower the peeled peaches into 4 1-pint canning jars and pour the syrup over them. Try to get 1 cardamom pod in each jar. Process the jars per their instructions. Peaches will keep all winter long. Serve with a mound of unsweetened whipped cream.

Not my favorite book we've ever read for book club, but I made it through the book. I didn't mind the writing style but the plot was a little plodding for me. I felt like it took forever for anything to really happen. And really as soon as I finished the book I'd forgotten it. Since it was set in the Balkan region I decided to try that out for our menu for the evening. Even if the book isn't great doesn't mean we can't eat well!! Enjoy the eats!

Amazon: In a Balkan country mending from war, Natalia, a young doctor, is compelled to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. Searching for clues, she turns to his worn copy of The Jungle Bookand the stories he told her of his encounters over the years with “the deathless man.” But most extraordinary of all is the story her grandfather never told her—the legend of the tiger’s wife.

In a large saucepan, combine the rice, tomatoes, onions, herbs, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and baharat and mix well. Add 275 ml cold water and stir to combine. Bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover with a lid. Cook gently for 12–­13 minutes until all the liquid has been absorbed. Remove from the heat and spread the rice on a tray to cool.

Meanwhile, slice 2 cm down from the top of each peppr and reserve. Using a spoon scrape out the seeds and membrane. Arrange the capsicums in a baking dish to fit snugly.

Fill the peppers with the cooled rice and cover with the reserved tops. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Add 125 ml (½ cup) water to the baking dish and transfer to the oven. Bake for 30–40 minutes until the peppers are tender when pierced with a skewer. Cool and arrange on a platter to serve.

To make the crepes, mix egg, coconut milk, flour, salt, vanilla and shredded coconut until thoroughly mixed and the only lumps are from the shredded coconut. Cover and refrigerate mixture for 30 minutes, or overnight. When ready to use, let mixture sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Heat an oiled skillet over medium high heat. Pour about ¼ cup of batter into pan, swirling pan around to spread out the batter.

When edges of the crepe rise slightly and small bubbles appear, flip and cook for another few minutes.

What a book! I'd say it's a cross between Revolution (canceled ABC show), Hunger Games and Night Circus. I loved that art was interwoven into the post-apocalyptic storylines. I read this book so fast I couldn't wait to find out what was happening to each character/storyline. If you're a fan of any of the shows/books I've mentioned above- do yourself a favor and read this book. It's not very long and it really draws you in. A perfect book club choice! When I was picking out food I tried to pull from the various storylines as well as think about what would be left to use once the world kind of ended. Hope you enjoy!

Amazon: An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production of King Lear. Jeevan Chaudhary, a paparazzo-turned-EMT, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur’s chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment, watching out the window as cars clogthe highways, gunshots ring out, and life disintegrates around them.

Fifteen years later, Kirsten is an actress with the Traveling Symphony. Together, this small troupe moves between the settlements of an altered world, performing Shakespeare and music for scattered communities of survivors. Written on their caravan, and tattooed on Kirsten’s arm is a line from Star Trek: “Because survival is insufficient.” But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who digs graves for anyone who dares to leave.

Spanning decades, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, this suspenseful, elegiac novel is rife with beauty. As Arthur falls in and out of love, as Jeevan watches the newscasters say their final good-byes, and as Kirsten finds herself caught in the crosshairs of the prophet, we see the strange twists of fate that connect them all. A novel of art, memory, and ambition, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it.

I had heard such great things about this book (Goodreads 2014 of the year list) and after loving Rowell's Eleanor & Park I decided to try this one out as well. E&P is more of YA fiction whereas Landline is adult fiction. I have to say after a bit of slow start I got drawn into the book and read it in about 2 days. The story is a little far-fetched with the magical landline phone - but hey who of us actually has a landline around anymore? You never know what it could be capable of... A really nice read and one that I think would be great for book club. As far as the menu- it was a little difficult considering how much Georgie barely eats but I managed to find a few food items in the book. Enjoy!

Amazon: Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply—but that almost seems beside the point now.Maybe that was always beside the point.﻿Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her—Neal is always a little upset with Georgie—but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go without her.When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts. . . .Is that what she’s supposed to do?Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

Menu: Neal's Specialties

JiffyPop

Salmon Stir-fry

Grandma's Christmas Cookies

JiffyPop

one container of JiffyPop

Follow instructions on product just like Neal taught Alice to do. Enjoy!

Meanwhile, heat olive oil and sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Add the garlic and ginger to the skillet and heat, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add the salmon chunks and cook, stirring once for 2 to 3 minutes or until partially opaque. Cover the skillet and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, until the salmon is opaque and flakes easy with fork.

Remove cover from skillet; stir in the frozen vegetables. Add the vinegar and soy sauce; stir well. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes longeror until sauce is slightly reduced.

Serve immediately over cooked rice with a little drizzle of soy sauce.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients until just blended. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets and flatten slightly.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned at the edges. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

It took me a little to get in to this book, it didn't read as fast for me as Me Before You which made me a blubbering mess. However once I had some time to focus (IE: a flight to California) I had no trouble getting through the pages. I spent a lot of time rooting for the main characters to just get together already but of course the entire book is about that journey so I had to have a little patience. Tanzie and Norman are the best characters that make you laugh and cry and really make the story. When I was thinking about book club for this it seemed only natural to pull from the meals the characters ate on their epic road journey to Scotland (except no stomach problems this time!!). Hope you enjoy the eats and definitely plan on reading this one for your book club!!

Amazon: One single mom. One chaotic family. One quirky stranger. One irresistible love story from the New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You

American audiences have fallen in love with Jojo Moyes. Ever since she debuted Stateside she has captivated readers and reviewers alike, and hit the New York Times bestseller list with the word-of-mouth sensation Me Before You. Now, with One Plus One, she’s written another contemporary opposites-attract love story.

Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied, and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight in shining armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages . . . maybe ever.

Cut rolls in half and spread mayo onto 1 side of the rolls. Place a slice or two of ham and slice of swiss cheese in roll. Replace the top of the rolls and bunch them closely together into a baking dish.

Combine the honey, corn syrup, sugar and water in a large deep pot and stir until there are no dry patches in the sugar. Please use a deep pot for this recipe since the sugar mixture will triple in size during the cooking process later on.

At this point, also line a baking sheet with parchment paper and measure out the baking soda in to a small bowl since you will need to pour it all in to the caramelized sugar all at once. Always good to be prepared!

Place a candy thermometer in the pot and place on high heat. Please do not touch the mixture at this point! If you try mixing it, the sugar might seize up and you will be left with a crystallized mess. So just leave it alone, but stay close by. The mixture will melt and begin to bubble very quickly.

When the sugar mixture is an amber color and the candy thermometer reaches a temperature of exactly 300 degrees F, which takes only 5 minutes, take the pot off the stove and immediately add the baking soda. Whisked vigorously until well combined. Please note that while you are whisking, the mixture is going to triple in size and become a very hot foam. Please be careful not to get your fingers near that mixture or you will burn yourself.

Gently pour the foam mixture on to the baking sheet and let the mixture cool for 2 hours.

Once the candy cools, break it in to pieces, just like a brittle.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments (should take around 1 and a half minutes) until melted then dip the honey comb candy to coat completely. You don’t have to coat the candy in chocolate but you must store it in an airtight container or it will begin to soften from the moisture in the air within a matter of just hours!

Place the dipped honey comb back on to the parchment lined baking sheet and place in the fridge for 10 minutes to set.

I heart Amy Poehler. Her book made me laugh and I actually felt like I could hear her telling me the stories as I was reading it. I've ready a few comedians memoirs: Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling. They do not disappoint. Each one has a different flair but they each tell it like it is. Poehler's Yes Please is no different. I loved reading about her time on SNL and then building, creating and finishing Parks and Rec. I finished watching the show just after I finished the book. Perfect timing if I do say so myself. Read this book. Whether it's for a book club (which is more fun) or just because you need a break and a laugh. It's fast, easy to read and so worth it. When I was trying to think of a menu to go with Yes Please I decided a late night food menu would be the best. Amy basically doesn't sleep and works many many late nights in her comedy career so what better to fuel book club than late night food!? Hope you enjoy!

AMAZON: Do you want to get to know the woman we first came to love on Comedy Central's Upright Citizens Brigade? Do you want to spend some time with the lady who made you howl with laughter on Saturday Night Live, and in movies like Baby Mama, Blades of Glory, and They Came Together? Do you find yourself daydreaming about hanging out with the actor behind the brilliant Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation? Did you wish you were in the audience at the last two Golden Globes ceremonies, so you could bask in the hilarity of Amy's one-liners?If your answer to these questions is "Yes Please!" then you are in luck. In her first book, one of our most beloved funny folk delivers a smart, pointed, and ultimately inspirational read. Full of the comedic skill that makes us all love Amy, Yes Please is a rich and varied collection of stories, lists, poetry (Plastic Surgery Haiku, to be specific), photographs, mantras and advice. With chapters like "Treat Your Career Like a Bad Boyfriend," "Plain Girl Versus the Demon" and "The Robots Will Kill Us All" Yes Please will make you think as much as it will make you laugh. Honest, personal, real, and righteous,Yes Please is full of words to live by.

On a working surface like a large wooden cutting board, spread the dough out slightly using a roller. Place 2 tsp of the picadillo filling in the center of the dough. Moisten the edge on the top half of the circle with a little water on your finger. Fold the bottom half of the dough up until the edges meet and seal with your fingers by pressing down to form a half circle.

Next, fold the edges of the dough using your fingertip, fold one corner of the empanada over, pressing down firmly, repeating all around, pressing firmly each time to maintain a seal around the edge of the empanada in a spiral pattern.

Place the chocolate chips in a medium microwave safe bowl and melt until smooth, stirring every 30 seconds.

Cover a baking sheet or platter with wax paper. Dip the bottom side of the crackers in the melted chocolate. Place the crackers on the wax paper. Transfer the crackers to the freezer and let the chocolate dry completely. This will take about 5 minutes.

Remove the crackers from the freezer and spread peanut butter over 12 of the chocolate crackers. Place the crackers back in the freezer so the peanut butter can set up, about 5 minutes.

Remove the crackers from the freezer and place a small scoop of vanilla ice cream into the center of the 12 chocolate peanut butter crackers. Gently press the remaining crackers, chocolate side down, onto the ice cream scoop. Freeze for at least 30 minutes before serving.